Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for May 16, 2009 MATH SUCCESS - GENES OR HARD WORK?

Educators Are Challenging the Idea That Numerical Ability Must Come Naturally

By Michael Alison Chandler
Washington Post Staff Writer

Fairfax High School junior Mary O'Brien memorizes German verb conjugations, rows on a crew team several days a week and relishes delving into an 800-page Russian novel. But the honors student is flummoxed by fractions and functions.

"Why didn't I get the good math genes?" she said with a groan one spring day as she counted out squares on graph paper and connected three points to form a wobbly parabola. "My life would be so much easier."

To counter the notion that mathematics ability is inscribed in DNA, school officials and corporate executives are waging a public relations campaign for the hearts and minds of the average math student. Their goal is to immerse more middle school students in algebra and toughen high school math requirements so graduates can compete for increasingly technical jobs. Their message: Advanced math is not only for rocket scientists.

"We are trying to find more and more ways to get the youth of America engaged," said William H. Swanson, chief executive of Raytheon. The Massachusetts-based defense contractor gives out math and science scholarships and is designing a math-oriented attraction at Disney World's Epcot. It also has brought professional football players to school rallies to talk about math in sports, tackling a stereotype that math is for nerds.

Celebrities also are trying to bring glamour to the quadratic formula. Danica McKellar, who played Winnie Cooper in the television series "The Wonder Years," proved a mathematical theorem in college and has written two books, including "Math Doesn't Suck," to introduce math concepts to teenage girls through examples about cliques and shopping.

Math-themed contests abound. Some offer rewards for students who design robots. Travis Grenier, a student from Rocky Mount, Va., was honored by the National Math and Science Initiative in March for an animated video he produced to rap music called "Crank Dat Calculus."

To be sure, math apathy remains pervasive. "You don't need math," many students say. "I was never good at math, either," adults reply. Such refrains, said Henry "Hank" Kepner, president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, "send a message that you don't have to try."

Researchers are amassing evidence on the power of motivation.

In a 2007 study that she co-authored, Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck charted the progress of two groups of seventh-graders in New York City who received similar instruction in math and study skills. One of the groups also learned about the changing nature of intelligence, specifically a theory that the brain forms new connections when you learn new things, a process that can boost intelligence. Students who learned it is possible to grow smarter were more likely to improve their math grades; the others kept sliding in performance.

In many countries, math has long been recognized as a tough subject that can be mastered through hard work, said Tom Loveless, a scholar at the Brookings Institution who analyzes international math test results and cultural differences. Efforts to make math more fun or dress up textbooks are not the answer, he said.

The Washington Post has been examining attitudes toward math this school year at Fairfax High. In an informal survey of more than 300 math students there, most tied their affection for math to their performance or ability. Those who said they like math often said it "comes naturally" or "makes sense" or is "easy." Those who do not like math said it is "too hard" or "confusing."

As students progress from one math course to another, some can get deeply, darkly lost. Although it is possible to pick up virtually any chapter in a history book and learn something new, one expert said, an advanced chapter of math could read like Greek to a student unfamiliar or uncomfortable with the concepts. The risk of frustration is high. So is the need for math teachers who can ably explain complex topics.

Mary remembers enjoying math in elementary school. Even long division wasn't too bad, she said. Things got trickier around fifth grade, when pre-algebra crept into the curriculum. For the first time, quizzes and homework assignments came back with a U on top for "unsatisfactory."

"I don't deal well with failure," she said.

She did not tune out, though. She worked harder, sometimes spending three hours on one question. "It was so frustrating," she said.

Mary also worried. Although she had good marks in other honors and Advanced Placement classes, she said, colleges look at math grades, and competition to get into good schools is cutthroat.

She brought questions home to her father. She stayed after school. This year, she met regularly with an honors math student for tutoring.

After she received a C-plus for the first quarter in Algebra II, she began plotting to erase math classes from her life. She concocted a plan to save enough from her after-school job as a grocery store cashier to pay for a summer statistics class. That would fulfill her graduation requirements and leave her senior year gloriously math-free.

But things improved. After more study sessions and lots of help from her teacher, Mary enjoyed more "Aha!" moments and some high quiz scores. She received a B in the second quarter and again in the third.

"I try my best at it," she said.

One day this month she was back in study hall, correcting answers she missed on the last math quiz. A classroom poster encouraged her: "Just because something is difficult doesn't mean you shouldn't try. You should just try harder."